[134 points / 12 votes]
“Minimalist is a word that gets thrown around a lot when people talk about the films of Kelly Reichardt, and while the slow pacing and small, low-incident stories she tells bears out that description it misses something that distinguishes her from many other filmmakers that bear the label. Directors like Tarr, Tarkovsky, Kaurismaki or Tsai use a similar aesthetic frequently to express various moral, spiritual and social vacuums in their stories. Reichardt's films use their frequent quiet patches to house subtle but significant detail which often speaks louder of her characters and stories than what you might consider the action. Taking her gift for small stories even farther than she has before, this past year she brought us Certain Women, where the scope of her stories has become so small she had to include three of them.
“Stepping away her longtime writing partner, author Jonahtan Raymond, she found inspiration in the short stories of Maile Meloy. Set in Meloy's home state of Montana Reichardt's triptych examines three very loosely connected stories of three Midwestern women. The first, centered around a lawyer (played by legendary actress Laura Dern) and her difficult client (Jared Harris of Mad Men) is far and away the closest to being what one might ‘action packed.’ There is some ‘little guy getting screwed over by a negligent company’ litigation and even a hostage situation, which is as low key a hostage situation can be without dipping over into straight comedy. The second, the most underrated in my opinion, centers around an upper middle class woman (played by Reichardt regular Michelle Williams) whose efforts to acquire some old sandstone for a wall in the rustic house in the country that she's building pivots on an awkward conversation with an aging neighbor left many scratching their heads. The third and far and away the most popular segment is also the longest; it takes up half the film's running time. Centered on an isolated ranch hand (newcomer Lily Gladstone in a role that won her universal acclaim and this year's Muriel award for Best Supporting Actress) whose care taking of multiple stables of horses is an all day job, forges a tenuous connection with the out of town teacher of a night class (Kristen Stewart) she begins sitting in on as it’s the one building in town with cars parked outside of it in the evening.
“Each starkly simple short released on its own would be worthy of accolades, but taken collectively the depth of the astonishing cast and the skill with which they're directed exude a hypnotic aura over the audience. One might call it comforting if not for the unspoken tension that runs through these and every Kelly Reichardt story. Emotionally engrossing, but as far away from maudlin or melodramatic as you can get before you hit the icy chill of the gaze of someone like Michael Haneke. With Certain Women Kelly Reichardt remains one of the United States’ most exciting and essential independents, though she still proves too daring for the arthouse mainstream.” ~ Patrick J. Miller
No comments:
Post a Comment